Antica Farmacista Gets Personal with Gilda’s Club

One hundred percent of proceeds from the October sales of Antica Farmacista's Peonia, Gardenia & Rosa line will be donated to Gilda's Club.

“Of course peonies are named for Paean, who was the Greek god of healing,” says Shelley Callaghan. Or maybe it was Susanne Pruitt … it’s hard to tell, when they finish each other’s sentences so seamlessly. Callaghan and Pruitt are the best friends—and the brains—behind Antica Farmacista, the luxury home-and-body-fragrance company best known for popularizing the reed-diffuser concept. From Acqua to Vanilla,__Antica Farmacista__offers a bouquet of luxurious olfactory experiences, many drawn from the co-founders' personal lives (such as the seasonal scent Blade of Grass, as both women are avid golfers).

One hundred percent of proceeds from the October sales of Antica Farmacista's Peonia, Gardenia & Rosa line will be donated to Gilda's Club.

Right now, though, we are talking peonies, as well as the ladies’ new project in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. “It’s a very feminine fragrance,” Callaghan says of the Peonia, Gardenia & Rosa line. “It’s warm, and bright. Something you’d want in a boudoir.” One whiff and you may think you’ve been transported to a lovely wooded garden. Luscious peony, rose, and gardenia are the standouts of this scent, with bright notes of lemon, and subtle, warm layers of sandalwood filling it out.

Throughout October, 100 percent of the profits from the sale of all of these products (room spray, home ambiance, hand wash, perfume, moisturizer, and bath-and-shower gel) will be donated to Gilda’s Club, an organization very close to both Callaghan's and Pruitt’s heart. In 2003 Pruitt was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Gilda’s Club was there to support her and her family throughout the entire treatment process. The founding principle of the organization—that “no one should have to face cancer alone”—is one that Pruitt and Callaghan feel is crucial to the recovery process. Their goal for Breast Cancer Awareness Month is to not just draw attention to the struggles that face families touched by breast cancer but, with a nod to the namesake of the leading scent in this fragrance—peonies—provide support for an organization devoted to recovery and healing.